Sony Ericsson txt pro preview: First look

Introduction

The Yendo paved the way for full-touch feature phones in Sony Ericsson's lineup and now the txt pro is coming to cement their position. It puts a slide-out QWERTY and SNS features in the palm of your hand and includes Wi-Fi connectivity for cheaper (and faster!) Internet access.

Sony Ericsson txt pro official photos

While the Xperia mini pro boasts a fast CPU and Android, the Sony Ericsson txt pro aims at a lower price bracket. Sony Ericsson have done their best to emulate the Android experience - the four-corner UI used originated in the X10 mini and the paginated menu are just some examples. You even get Gmail, Picasa and Gtalk integration.

The txt pro also comes with Facebook and Twitter integration through the Friends app, which follows the status updates of five of your friends. We'll get back to that in a second, let's check out the highlights of the Sony Ericsson txt pro.

Sony Ericsson txt pro at a glance:

• General: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Form factor: Slide-out QWERTY touch phone
• Dimensions: 93 x 52 x 18 mm, 100g weight
• Display: 3" 256K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen with WQVGA resolution; scratch-resistant surface
• Memory: 100MB internal memory, microSD card slot
• Camera: 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera, geo-tagging, QVGA@15fps video recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Touch-friendly four corner UI, Facebook and Twitter integration via Friends app, accelerometer for screen auto rotate, FM radio with RDS, TrackID music recognition
• Battery: 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery

The four-corner UI has two homescreens - the first holds the clock, while the second holds five contacts. For each one you get extended info - all calls, SMS messages along with Facebook and Twitter status updates rolled into one tabbed interface we're used to seeing in custom Android skin jobs.

The 3" WQVGA screen offers enough space for comfortable interaction with apps like Opera Mini and the Wi-Fi connectivity means you can do more browsing (and IM chatting) than you would on a Wi-Fi-less phones.

Sony Ericsson txt pro live shots

FIY, there's a 360-degree spin & hardware checkup on the next page. L8r, we'll look @ the software.